The artist GREASETANK hosts a website, www.greasetank.com,
which showcases fellow artists, in a wide variety of styles, who
share his dark vision of sex and violence. It also includes his
own digitally rendered images of brutal sexuality, which are not
for the faint-of-heart. [Greasetank's website was taken down a few
months before he passed away in 2008. - Ed,]
When strangers ask me what kind of
art I do, I tell them lakes. Always a beautiful lake, I tell them,
with an angel with diaphanous, outstretched wings hovering above the
water, and golden trout leaping over a rainbow formed by her tears. A
young boy stands on the shore, fragile and alone, peering into its
watery depths.
"What a lovely scene,"
they say. "You must show us some day."
"Oh, I'm much too shy."
It’s a lie, of course. What I
really do are pictures of men torturing and killing other men.
Often for sexual pleasure.
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"Knuckle 3" by Greasetank |
"Take yer Nazi bullshit and beam
it and u far away from this universe. Delete this site, or I will leave
the club after 48 hours." That's what someone
said, demanding that my site be deleted from an on-line club. My site
was deleted. This was my first encounter with censorship. No need to
stir up the waters beneath my weeping angel.
I don’t know exactly what name to
give my art. I just know it’s what I do. It offends some, fascinates
others, and turns on quite a few. I believe there's a largely
unexplored region in the human psyche, something Jung called "the
Shadow," that many of us are reluctant to face. It isn’t
pretty, but it must be examined at if we’re to gain control over it.
Until we do, it exerts its influence in secret, which can lead to
real-life violence of all kinds.
Censorship is an ugly thing. I’ve
received few strongly negative criticisms about my work.
One recently came from a fellow who
threatened a boycott of the Tom of Finland Foundation if it continued
to support my site. I offered to withdraw my link, but the Foundation
didn’t much cater to that idea. Some of Tom’s art was considered
offensive and/or "controversial" in his time, they said, and
he certainly would have supported my unfettered right to show my work.
ToFF doesn’t censor, I've learned.
Book burning has already been tried and found wanting.
I can appreciate that my images aren’t
for everyone, but I don’t understand why a few would want to deny
others the freedom to view them and decide for themselves. Perhaps
these self-proclaimed arbiters of good taste in art have their
motives, but must they force their tastes on others? None of my images
has ever been hauled into court and charged with a crime, but
evidently that’s not good enough for these self-anointed censors.
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"Weakling 2" by Greasetank |
In another era, I’d probably be
typing this in prison because my work had been deemed
"offensive." Since launching my website, I’ve gained
renewed respect for the First Amendment rights of the United States,
especially now that some countries are prosecuting their most creative
citizens for what amounts to little more than thought crimes. One
artists who shows his work on my website has firsthand knowledge of
this fact. No wonder my angel is weeping.
Another artist featured on my site
secreted away hundreds of his works in cardboard boxes for decades.
Just what is there to be ashamed of? That we harbor such dark
fantasies within us? If so, I don’t remember putting them there.
They just sprouted along with my pubic hair. Sort of like being gay,
and I see no reason to censor myself.
I define censorship as any act that
suppresses human growth and creativity. Ironically, these days most of
it comes from within. Some things are just too painful to look at, I
suppose, so we pretend they don't exist.
Personally, I would recoil in horror
were any of the material on my site to take place in real life, but
please allow me the freedom to create my art. That’s all I, or any
artist asks for, really; the freedom to explore our God-given talents.
I accept whatever responsibility is mine, and pray that life deals
justly and compassionately with me; but I refuse to decide for others
what they can view or read. I'm not superior enough to make that
judgment call.
Perhaps my art represents all that
is base in the human spirit. I don't know, but I do know one thing—you
don't come to the light by suppressing the darkness. Everything must
eventually be uncovered and revealed for what it is, and therein lies
the real danger of censorship. It stifles our spiritual growth.
Let them boycott my site. Let the
closed minds of the world beam me far away from this universe. Until
they do, I’ll stand humbly on the shore with my guardian angel,
peering into the depths of the deep.
—Greasetank
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